The Bill Always Comes Due
by Kuro Guardian
Summary: "The problem with the world is too many sorcerors. Sorcerors who through their arrogance and selfishness chose to pervert Nature's Laws in order to harm others. What they fail to understand is that the bill will always come due. And you Witch are long overdue for your bill."


She awakens bound to a chair. All things considered, she has been in worse positions, but not by very much. It is fine – she need only reach for her powers and she will be free to seek vengeance. Only there is nothing there. Neither warmth nor the boundless cold when she pulls too much too fast – she is empty and finds herself gasping from the loss. "Have you lost something child?"

Whipping her head to the left she sees a cloaked man who was not there a minute ago. "Who are you?" She tries to put as much venom as she can into like Pietro taught her so many years ago. _'Even if you are not the biggest dog in the room you can still seem like the toughest.'_ Clint says the same and even when Steve was small and sickly he knew to stand his ground. 'I am not afraid of you.' But the man only smiles and then he draws a design in the air with light.

"They call you a witch, but you are not wise. You know nothing. You are an angry, ignorant child in desperate need of guidance and correction, but all you want is the power to hurt others." The man closes his hands and then opens them wide to reveal a roiling ball of red light. "Here is your power. The power you stole for your own selfish purpose from the Infinity Gem Loki had. You who would pervert all of Nature's laws because you think you have suffered the most."

The man stands and pulls back his hood to reveal a Negro like Sam or T'Challa, but he is obviously a bad man like Rhodes. "Like you, my country became a violent war zone. Unlike you, I was born and raised in it. I saw children younger than me go mad, be raped, be beaten to death for a piece of bread. I watched a pregnant woman have most her brains emptied upon the trash filled street and then be skull fucked by her killer while his friends worked any hole they could find."

"That doesn't mea-" For a moment she cannot understand why her vision has so suddenly shifted. And then the pain hits her as tears spring unbidden to her eyes. No one has raised a hand to her like this since Hydra and even then they hesitated. "Foolish little girl – no _ignorant_ , spoiled _ **bitch**_!" Cruel calloused fingers grasp her chin and point her face toward him. "You are just like him – the fool who nearly sold us all into eternal hell because his family died. People die – they die from accidents, from sickness, from age, and from murder. Such is the natural way of things and there is nothing to be done about it!"

The lunatic removes his hands like she's filthy and then wipes them on his cloak. Reaching into his pocket he withdraws what looks like a child's idea of brass knuckles. She is not afraid because the others will come and then they will teach him the error of his ways. She just has to survive. She just has to – she has to be brave and then Steve will come with the others. Pain is nothing. Pain is **nothing**. "I am not afraid of you."

He smiles, "Good. I am not your enemy. However, you have done much to make them haven't you Witch?" And his hand spins in a circle as particles of gold and marigold and monarch orange gather into a ring. A ring that expands into a portal to a world of ice and ash - where shadows skitter with an unnerving vitality as though they were alive. "I am not going there!" Her struggles are less than useless, and he doesn't bother to hide his amusement – "You speak as though you have a choice Witch." She and the chair are lifted by light and thrown bodily through the ring.

She tumbles once, twice, three times and then slides to a stop. It is so cold it hurts to breathe and the dirt in her mouth tastes metallic. The rocks are razor-sharp apparently because she bleeds freely from many shallow cuts – and a dry tongue runs over the largest one on her forehead. Wanda shudders as she screams causing the shrunken ribcage in her face to draw back. It's a child – the child of a couple of scientists who would not bow to Hydra. She promised she would hurt him if they did not comply, and they did not listen – eventually she killed him and them. It was her first mission and it was considered a success. Pietro had not spoken to her for a week afterward.

"This is the realm of Hel - She of the Endless Compassion who takes all without a final home as well as those who can find no peace. Imagine how many murder victims end here. Imagine how many souls you've damned to these planes. If you cannot have no worries, they will come soon by one and two and a dozen to deal with you. Because in the end, my dear, the bill always comes due." And then the portal vanished and then the shadows lengthened and then all the rooks came home to roost.


End file.
